George Washington

George Washington, born at Popes Creek, Virginia, in 1732, inherited the Mount Vernon estate from his half-brother Lawrence’s widow in 1761 and expanded it over the following three decades into a five-farm plantation of roughly 8,000 acres ^[1] Source 1 Powell, History of Old Alexandria, 1928 Book . As a seventeen-year-old apprentice surveyor he assisted in the 1749 plat of Alexandria, and he retained close commercial and social ties to the town throughout his life, attending Christ Church and stopping frequently at Gadsby’s Tavern.

Washington commanded the Continental Army through the American Revolutionary War and served two terms as the first president of the United States (1789–1797). He held hundreds of enslaved people at Mount Vernon over his lifetime; his will directed their manumission upon the death of his widow, Martha Washington Person Martha Washington b. 1731 · d. 1802 Mistress of from her 1759 marriage to until her death in 1802, and first First Lady of the United States. Through her dower Custis estate she brought into the Washington … ^[2] Source 2 Miller, Artisans and Merchants, 1991 Book . He died at Mount Vernon in December 1799 and is interred there. His funeral procession passed through Alexandria in a public mourning observed for weeks afterward.

Washington the Mason

Washington was initiated a Freemason at Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 4, 1752, at age twenty, and remained a Mason for the rest of his life. On April 28, 1788 he became the first Worshipful Master under charter of what is now Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 Nonprofit Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 founded 1783 Alexandria's senior Masonic lodge, chartered in 1788 under the Grand Lodge of Virginia with as its first Worshipful Master. Custodian of the largest private collection of … ^[3] Source 3 Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 — "AW22 History" Website . Five years later, on September 18, 1793, he wore Masonic regalia to lay the cornerstone of the United States Capitol — using a silver trowel made for the occasion by Alexandria silversmith John Duffey, which the Alexandria lodge preserved across the next 130 years and ceremonially reused at the 1923 cornerstone laying of the 101 Callahan Drive Place 101 Callahan Drive A 333-foot granite tower atop Shuter's Hill, completed 1932 by Freemasons across the United States to honor as Charter Master of . Conceived after an 1871 fire at the lodge's Old … ^[4] Source 4 Scottish Rite Journal — "100th Anniversary of the GWMNM Cornerstone Laying" Website . After his death, his personal Masonic objects — the silver trowel, his Masonic Bible and apron, ceremonial regalia, and much of his correspondence — were entrusted to Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, which built up the largest single collection of Washington personal artifacts in existence; most of that collection survives today on Shuter’s Hill ^[3] Source 3 Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 — "AW22 History" Website .